This Chair Can Shrink Down To The Size Of A Pizza Box -- And Back

The downside to compact, energy efficient vehicles is their lack of cargo space. But designers around the world are hard at work ensuring that doesn’t inhibit your ability to properly furnish your home. Like Carl de Smet who created this comfy foam lounger that smooshes down to a flat block that’s 5 per cent of its original size.

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That’s almost small enough to fit it in your glove compartment. And when you get home from the furniture store there’s no assembly required either. The chair is actually made from polyurethane shape-memory polymers which can be deformed but will always return to their original shape and size.

They just need a little encouragement, like an electrical charge, or in this instance, a temperature of 70 degrees. This chair is just a prototype meant to demonstrate the potential of these new materials when it comes to furniture design, but the foam seat has been engineered to easily support the weight of someone using it. So microwave furniture might not actually be that crazy of a concept. [Noumenon via Dezeen]